HIV care crisis emerging: Ryan White act being gutted, care provider $ cut

[Bluebear]

The average Medicare reimbursement per patient, per year for treating a person with HIV is $359. "That covers physicians, nurses, rent, utilities, social workers – you name it. How are we supposed to survive?"

Dr. Michael Saag asked that question at a national forum for HIV care providers meeting in Washington, D.C. on August 30. He said the figure was calculated from records at the HIV clinic that he leads at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The government pays for the vast majority of care and that level of reimbursement is just too low, advocates said. "One can't make it as an HIV care provider – unless they are lying and cheating – with that reimbursement," Saag said. "You won't see many HIV docs doing HIV private practice care five years from now, it will all be in publicly funded clinics."

He called it "an emerging crisis in health care delivery for HIV; patients not being able to get access to care."

http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=1160

What is the Ryan White CARE Act?

Who was Ryan White? He only lived 19 years, but in that time Ryan White managed to create a legacy of saved lives and renewed hope for people living with HIV/AIDS.

White was diagnosed at age 13 in 1984. Given six months to live, all he wanted to do was live as normal a life as possible.

Succumbing to ignorance and fear about his disease, his Indiana school district said, "no," a decision that White's family successfully fought in court.

What is the Ryan White CARE Act? First enacted by Congress in 1990 (the year of White's death), the act provides funding to try to address the unmet health needs of people living with HIV/AIDS. Through its various sections, called "Titles," the act funds services ranging from primary health care to providing food and transportation to health care appointments.

Speak OUT for the CARE Act

Contact our state Senators and your U.S. Congressional Representative and urge them to fully fund the Ryan White CARE Act, and to continue providing funding for the community-based organizations that support poor people living with HIV/AIDS

http://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=20123

[walldude]

1. K&R

The War on Aids Care and Research :eyes:

[Bluebear]

2. $359. per year for an HIV patient. but we're "building hospitals in Iraq"

<eyes:

[ceile]

3. K&R

Fortunately, here where I work, they haven't completely gutted our RW Title I. But it still could be more....

[sandnsea]

4. What's wrong with public clinics?

Seems like that would cut out all the overhead and allow more money to go straight to the patients.

[Bluebear]

7. They are trying to tie it to universal name reporting, for one nt

[leftchick]

5. Thank You BB.

These people are despicable. :grr:

[kilgore65]

6. HIV infected people aren't supposed to survive, under...

Bush's weltamschanung (German for 'worldview'). HIV was developed by the Nazi influenced US military industrial complex as a means of promoting global population reduction. One of the primary promoters that the world's population needed to be reduced is George Herbert Walker Bush, known as 'Rubbers' by his colleagues in the Congress in the 1960s. It is interesting to note that the first appearances of AIDS occurred immediately after 'Rubbers' tenure as CIA director in the mid-70s. Read Len Horowitz's book "Emerging Viruses: AIDS and Ebola"